A blistering opening 15 minutes and a gritty second-half defensive effort laid the platform for South Sydney's exciting 16-12 win over Manly at Brookvale Oval.

The Rabbitohs, still hurting from an embarrassing loss to Canterbury last weekend, jumped to a 16-0 lead through two tries to hooker Cameron McInnes, who crossed in the sixth and 11th minutes, and another to five-eighth Cody Walker in the 15th minute.

It looked like the Sea Eagles were headed for a horror night, but when they finally got their hands on the football they hit back with a solo try to Dylan Walker, who had been shown the door by South Sydney when the club had to find some big dollars to get Englishman Sam Burgess back.

Down 16-6 at the break, Manly came out strongly with makeshift halfback Apisai Koroisau bursting through a gap to score virtually untouched in the 59th minute to cut the lead back to 16-12.

From that point on South Sydney defended its try line as Manly launched raid after raid in the final 20 minutes.

Koroisau, lanky Tom Trbojevic who ran 200 metres, Brenton Lawrence and Martin Taupau had huge games for the hosts, but Souths defended everything the Sea Eagles could throw at them.